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Town Square Craft Show
Paola, KS, November 2025 I am notorious about finding local activities. Today was no different. Paola Kansas is about 10 miles from Hillsdale State Park. The town has a population of around 5,800 people. The main street stores surround the Town Park. Since it was just Halloween, John immediately noticed the sign “Potawatomi Trail of…
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Lawrence Farmers Market
Lawrence, KS October 2025 Lawrence, Kansas has the oldest running Farmers Market in Kansas. The market started in 1976 with 3 farmers selling vegetables from the back of their trucks. Now the market has 49 vendors. Many of the vendors are still selling agriculture products ranging from vegetables, fruits, honey, meats, mushrooms, flowers, etc. The…
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Japanese Friendship Garden
Lawrence, KS, October 2025 When we visited the area in 2024, we know about the Japanese Friendship Garden. We looked up the location and discovered it was right next to the Watkins Museum which we did visit in 2024. The Friendship Garden started with Hiratsuka, Japan donating $5,000 to Lawrence in 1995. The city of…
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Canistosta Disappoints
Canistosta, SD, August 2025 Kate read that Canistosta has a farmer’s market on Tuesdays from 5pm to 7 pm. We left a little early with plans to stop by the dam and get to Canistosta at 5pm. We checked the dam for the Belted Kingfisher, but it was not there. The hurt pelican was floating…
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Falls Park
Sioux Falls, SD, August 2025 Kate found out that there was a Farmer’s Market in Sioux Falls at Falls Park. We decided to kill several birds with one drive by going to the Farmer’s Market, touring Falls Park, and getting groceries all in the same trip. On the way out, we saw a Great (White)…
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Greenway Bike Trail
Sioux Falls, SD, August 2025 I started out the day watching the birds from the back window. We had quite the variety. Unfortunately, Mackie slept through it. Sioux Falls is about 30 miles from Lake Vermillion State Recreation Area and is the largest town in South Dakota. Throughout the town runs the Greenway Bike Trail.…
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Palisades State Park
Garretson, SD, August 2025 Today was supposed to be a reasonably nice day with sun and no rain. So, we decided to visit Palisades State Park in South Dakota which is about 45 minutes from our current campground. We set the car GPS and off we went. Needless to say, the car GPS took us…
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Waterfowl Game Production Area
Lake Vermillion Recreation Area, SD, August 2025 South Dakota has a lot of “Waterfowl Production Areas” that are managed by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department. The website indicates that the Production areas have hiking. Based on what we saw, you can hike in the areas but there are no designated trails. I…
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Badlands National Park
Interior, SD, July 2025 Kate put together a plan to do everything within about 100 miles, except John ruined her plan by pointing out that her route bypassed most of the Badlands National Park. The revised plan skipped the extra grasslands visitor center, and passed through the badlands. This plan involved going to the Minuteman…
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Not Quite 20,000 Leagues Under the Ground
Wind Cave National Monument, SD, July 2025 It was closer to 500 feet. Actually, we have no idea on the length of a league. If a league is .025 feet, maybe it was 20,000 leagues. Probably not. We pre-purchased tickets for cave tours at Wind Cave National Monument. Originally, we planned for one at Wind…